Page 88 of No Capes
“No Arielle,” says my sister.
“That would be great.” I nod. Anything to end this embarrassment. Except… I face Arielle. “Did you know?”
“I’ve known about Fox for a few months, but not that Static and Gold were working together. I officially learned aboutDamian while you trained this afternoon.” She looks around the table and her face sets. All business. “We need to stop Phil’s control of other people.”
Damian winks at me while Arielle plots. I stare at my plate. Damian has officially destroyed all hope of things making sense.
“Phil relies on other people. If we cut out the people who do things for him…” Fox trails off.
“We cut him off from power.” Damian leans back in his chair, settling his hands in his lap. “Right, because the only power Phil has is the power that others give him. He needed Dr. Milligan to get him elected. Arielle to host parties. Dark Static to sack the city, and his henchmen to kidnap Madeline. He still hasn’t found you all since Hallowfest. He can’t do anything himself.”
Arielle patiently allows Damian to explain the obvious. “Thank you,” she says when he’s finished.
“There is,” Fox muses, “the matter of his powers. Phil’s.”
Damian blanches, and Arielle’s startled eyes pierce through me. She does indeed seem upset that I told Fox.Oops.Maybe I should have sworn Dark Static to secrecy.
“We’re all in this together now,” says Arielle reluctantly. “Yes, Phil has some powers. I’m not sure who else knows. I think just us.”
“That’s the secret Meredith had,” Damian says. “Holy moly.”
“It seems,” says Arielle, “that his powers can be stopped when a mirror is present. Fox and Madeline, we can put reflectors on your outfits to help mitigate him. Easy.”
This is why Dark Static—Fox—said that weaknesses must be kept secret. If your enemy can find out what very specific tool can counteract your powers, you would be worthless as a Super.
“We’ve got checkmate in two,” says Fox, throwing his dirty napkin on his plate. Now that everyone knows how smart he really is, he doesn’t hide it. “Phil still controls his henchmen andpublic opinion, so that’s what we need to cut off. I’ve already started on the henchmen.”
Arielle, our leader, jumps in. “I’ll alert the media to everything Phil’s done. We have proof that he kidnapped our dad from the voicemail he left on my phone.”
My phone,I think. The voicemail was on my phone. Arielle will need to bringmyphone to the media, her phone doesn’t have it. But she knows that—her brain is just going a mile a minute. Right?
“Perfect,” says Brynn, who sounds excited just to be included. “Phil literally told everyone his plan. He walked right into that one.”
Damian, used to strategizing battles, fills in the rest, “Normally, three Supers taking one man into custody wouldn’t be hard, but we need to do so without looking like the bad guys. Fox, you finish fighting the henchmen. I’ll take Phil. If he’s going to run an article about Golden Ace turning on Capital City, Golden Ace is the one who needs to bring him down.”
“And I’ll rescue Dad.” I nod.
“Go get that guy,” Jamie says. “That guy killed our parents.”
A silence passes, each of us stony faced and ready. The fear I had, hiding with Arielle in our old house, as the police shot at us, swells up. Arielle, the bravest person I know, fears Phil. When he killed my mom, he’d been steps ahead of Capital City’s finest investigative journalists.
It’s time to end his reign.
Out of everyone sitting at the table, it’s Brynn’s eyes that I meet. I expected Brynn, who devoted the last three years to pretending everything in her family is fine, to hold back tears after hearing Jamie’s comment, like Arielle is. Instead, Brynn’s face is intense, something I’ve never seen in her. She’s focused, like Fox. Like me.
“We will.” Fox looks straight at me. “We finally can.”
~
As Fox and Damian change into their Super gear, Arielle enters my-slash-Jamie’s room. I’m changing into Brynn’s old exercise pants, but Arielle interrupts by handing me a paper grocery bag.
“I want to see you in it.” She perches on the bed.
The bag feels heavier when I realize what’s inside.
The shimmery spandex is the exact color of rain, a one-piece suit with three distinct parts: leggings, a leotard, and a jacket. Weighing next to nothing, it reminds me more of my racing swimsuits than of the armor Dark Static and Golden Ace wear.
Arielle helps me put it on. The leggings are skintight, but not constricting, meaning they’ll hold body heat and make me look kind of normal. The dark legs of my suit will hide me at night, while the middle sparkles like sunny rain.
